Archons

Archon Revenants are corruptions of the glorious and noble Archon. In life, the Archon were a race of enlightened men. Outwardly very similar to humans, their inner peace and nature resembled that of the elves. Always helping humanity, their most fervent goal was fighting and obliterating the undead, who they saw as their ultimate nemesis. They eventually left, leaving behind tombs of warriors in large necropoles. By some cruel twist of fate, they eventually rose from their resting places as undead themselves. Nothing like their former selves, these Archon Revenants are soulless beings intend on spreading death and destruction.

--The Tome of Wonders

Contents

People who played the previous two Age of Wonders games might remember the Archons. The Necropoles are all that remains of their civilizations as their time has long passed. The dead they stored in these structures have since risen against their former philosophies they had in life, and now seek nothing more than to spread the undead plague across the world.

They do retain a certain amount of intelligence, if only guile and instinct. They can be reasoned with when they are in their Necropoles, assumedly because they have now become the focus of their powers and is where they are strongest.

Their troops are hardy and resistant to blight and frost but are let down by their lack of regeneration and significant spirit weaknesses. Their true strength lies in their power cohesion, a group of Revenants backed up by a Archon Caster is a dangerous force for all but the most prepared, they make good filler units due to their lower costs and the Archon Titan is a dangerous foe for any normal unit to face. Their later units, the Wraiths, are some of the strongest units in the game.

Archon Revenant Infantry

'The villagers warned us not to go near the ruins of the Archon City, Starwall, but we had a mission to discover why they were gone. I lead the scholars to the main temple. The entryway portal was sealed. The scholars read the glyphs warding away all living things. Using cannons, we blasted open the seals. As the smoke cleared, a scholar screamed. We all held our breath as we saw the archon warriors limping out of the temple. Tellus, a scribe, hung lifeless, impaled from one of their blades. We'd made a terrible blunder. This was no holy Archon, but an undead abomination. We were left with more questions than answers.'

Archon Revenant Archer

'Archon Revenant Archers hit us from the porch of Starwall Temple, while my scholars were reading the glyphs on the collonade. I lost a linguist and a mercenary to the rain of arrows from these creatures that were once pure and noble Archons. We discovered that in the last days of the Archons a seductive ancestor-worshipping cult called Shadai ravaged the population of Starwall. A being of considerable power corrupted their dead. Like a bad dream, these soulless creatures of dead flesh remember all their skill with the bow, but not their ideals and dreams in life.

Archon Revenant Caster

'We encountered the first Archon Revenant Priestesses just outside the Holy of Holies, beside a sacrifical altar. These abominations had mastery over death like nothing I even witnessed. The bodies on the altar leapt to life with a flick of their bony wrists. My men were sluggish and clumsy in their presence as though a dark shadow dulled their senses. We dispatched the animated corpses, only to find the creature had the power to repair the damage we did to their warriors. All gifts they once used against the undead, their mortal enemy in life, they now used on us. They have become what they fought hardest.'

Archon Titan

'Plinthian, a religious scholar, interpreted the symbol of a fallen god, named Urrath, inscribed atop a giant sacrophagus sealed in the Inner Sanctum. His face sprung alive announcing the name, as if he finally understood all our questions about the fall of the Archons. Before he could explain, the great slab covering the massive stone coffin flew open, crushing the scholar. In the center of this tomb, the animated remains of a titan rose, its eyes glowing wickedly. Swinging a mace the size of a horse, it swung at me. I jumped through the exit hallway as walls around me exploded into a hail of splinters and rubble. Only I survived the temple's collapse. Only I live to record this tale. I hope that the horrors we found stay buried in that ruin.'

Wraith

'Something about the tomb felt wrong. I tried to warn him, but Alamastirr rushed into the chamber, his hands extended to reach for the smoking crystal. He let out a cry, pulling back. That's when we noticed the figure of a man in flowing robes, standing in the shadow. Its arms reached into Alamastirr, and the greedy mage's skin bubbled with blight. Ringer's arrows passed through the wraith, doing it no harm. Alamastirr managed to break free of its grasp by striking the wraith with his enchanted staff, while my fervent prayer to the Allfather drove it into the dust.'

Wraith King

'The words were bitter dust in my mounth as I prayed. Unlike the other wraiths, this one was darker, larger and mocked my being. Just looking into it, emptiness filled me with a dread that makes a man afraid to sleep at night. As I petitioned the Supreme Allfather, despair filled me. My acolytes quavered, crying out as the incorporeal nightmare reached out, inflicting disease on the crown of each of their shaved heads. Choking back my doubts, I confessed my deepest hidden sins, forsaking all for my belief that the Allfather might save, forgiving my hubris. Only then could I turn the terrible King of Wraiths.'